I appreciate Sam Sutter sharing these five Freedom Fighters with us this week. I trust that they have been a blessing for you too.
It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for this is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart. Ecclesiastes 7:2
Jonathan Edwards in his resolutions, like the Preacher of Ecclesiastes, was able to think about his fight for freedom in the whole gamut of life. When he was happy, he thought about how joyful he would be in heaven. When he was in pain, he thought about the suffering in hell.
Like a solder on the battlefield, everything around him was interpreted through the grid of the war he was waging.
In a fight for freedom half of our battle is to remember that we are in one. Edwards was committed to using every available resource to creatively remember and to get back on mission. How can we get better at using our routine, diversions and schedules to remind ourselves of the war around and inside of us?
Jonathan Edward's Resolutions
Remember to read over these Resolutions once a week.
9. Resolved, to think much on all occasions of my own dying, and of the every-day circumstances that remind me of death.
10. Resolved, when I feel pain, to think of the pains of martyrdom, and of hell.
11. Resolved, when I think of any theological problem to be solved, immediately to do what I can towards learn about God, if circumstances don't hinder.
37. Resolved, to inquire every night, as I am going to bed, wherein I have been negligent, what sin I have committed, and wherein I have denied myself: also at the end of every week, month and year. Dec.22 and 26, 1722.
40. Resolved, to inquire every night, before I go to bed, whether I have acted in the best way I possibly could, with respect to eating and drinking. Jan. 7, 1723.
41. Resolved, to ask myself at the end of every day, week, month and year, wherein I could possibly in any respect have done better. Jan. 11, 1723.
42. Resolved, frequently to renew the dedication of myself to God.
43. Resolved, to never act as if I were any way my own, but entirely and altogether belonging to God. Saturday, January 12. Jan.12, 1723.
53. Resolved, to improve every opportunity, when I am in the best and happiest frame of mind, to cast and venture my soul on the Lord Jesus Christ, to trust and confide in him, and consecrate myself wholly to him; that from this I may have assurance of my safety, knowing that I confide in my Redeemer. July 8, 1723.
55. Resolved, to endeavor to my utmost to act as I can think I should do, if I had already seen the happiness of heaven, and hell torments.
July 8, 1723.
69. Resolved, always to do that, which I shall wish I had done when I see others do it. Aug. 11, 1723.
(Pastor Samuel Sutter, Dix Hills EFC - www.dhefc.org <http://www.dhefc.org/> )
Great Quote: Men come and go; leaders, teachers, thinkers speak and work for a season, and then fall silent and impotent. He abides. They die, but He lives. They are lights kindled, and, therefore, sooner or later quenched; but He is the true light from which they draw all their brightness, and He shines for evermore. Alexander MacLaren
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